There's a red light that comes on with high engine temperature so if you really wanted an audible alarm just hang a sounder across the light. CKP is a bit more complicated as without a signal from the CKP the ECU doesn't know the engine is actually turning. I suppose it could be arranged to bring up an indication if there is no signal from the CKP but there is from the cam sensor. There's a world of difference between OBD as mandated in the US to what is needed here. If you read through RAVE there's numerous failures that will light the MIL on a NAS version car that don't on ours (at least on the P38 anyway) but the OBD standard became compulsory in the US from 1996 but not over here until 2000 (or 2003 for a diseasal).

The generic faults such as EAS, ABS and SRS faults are no less what you would find on any other modern car. All require you to take the car to your main dealer to see what the actual problem is. They have to assume that the average owner is incapable of dealing with anything hence the consult your dealer. If the information given was more specific, they could leave themselves wide open to being sued after someone tried to fix a fault themselves when they weren't capable of doing it.

Give it it's due, the BeCM is 20 year old technology and for it's age was very advanced. It's still advanced compared with some current cars (my 2015 model year company Renault doesn't tell me if any of the bulbs are blown or even if the washer reservoir is empty!) but it was a £50k car when new so you'd expect a bit of sophistication. I don't know of any car that will tell you what the fault is rather than just bringing on the Check Engine light. Some will flash it if it is a minor problem and bring it on all the time if more serious but that's about all you are going to get. The only weak point in the electrics is that some of the connectors aren't quite up to the amount of current that is drawn, other than that, it may be complex, but it's pretty well made and, dare I say it, reliable. Try something Italian or French from the same era if you want to know the definition of unreliable.

Loose connection or XYZ switch on it's way out. Ask her if the gear display on the dash goes out.

It may not tell you the type of bulb but it usually does tell you which one. Not sure about indicators but it'll definitely tell you which one if it is a headlight, sidelight, foglight, even a reversing light.

I must admit looking at the pictures I did think that it shouldn't be too difficult for someone with a lathe to turn up some new cones. Looks like you may have a little project in the making Clive......

Just back in after getting it all back together. Found two ball bearings laying on the ground underneath and two more where it was parked after being dropped off the AA transporter last night which I assume is what caused the clank when I wiggled it about to shoot the video this morning. There's a steel shield behind the crank pulley and I suspect what I heard was a ball bearing dropping onto that. You are probably right Clive, the whole thing has tried to walk forwards and the rest of the bearings are somewhere on the M54. There's no sign of leakage from the weep hole so it wasn't leaking for any length of time.

Gasket came off reasonably easily with brake cleaner spray, a Stanley knife blade and fine wet and dry to make sure the surface was clean. Glued the new gasket to the pump with Hylomar, another smear of Hylomar on the gasket and then bolted it on. It's probably taken me as long to refill the cooling system and get the air out than it did to change the pump. Nipped out earlier and went to Nene Overland, as they are local, and got a pump gasket (the one that came with the pump was in two bits where it had been in the bottom of the box with a water pump bouncing around on it) but they didn't have a serpentine belt in stock so I've put the used one I keep in the boot just in case on rather than the one that was on it. Picked up 5 litres of antifreeze too while I was out and put 4 litres or so in and topped up with a couple of litres of water so the concentration should be about right. I'll change the belt in the next couple of days and it'll be job done.

OK, inside to thaw my fingers out before starting the delightful job of cleaning the old gasket off the front cover ready to fit the new pump. Surprisingly little damage considering. The front cover is marked but it has just kissed the surface and if I were to polish the surrounding area the marks would only just be visible.

The pump looks errm, interesting. It looks like when the bearing let go the first thing that happened was that the whole thing tried to move forwards so it was running with the impeller against the inside of the pump. What sort of bearing was in there and where it has gone I'd rather not think about. I didn't see any bits drop out when I pulled it off (but I am working outside with only a lead light dangling down inside the engine bay) and I can't feel anything loose down either of the waterways.

The pump has no markings on it at all, not even a casting mark, so unfortunately we don't know who made it.

Just getting the feeling back in my fingers now so I'll finish my coffee and get back on it........

I hope you meant C637 pin 17 as that is the tacho output but that'll be giving 4 pulses per engine revolution and it's expecting to see 1. Two choices, play around with the settings and see if you can find one that makes it read correctly or move the brown wire to pin 2, 6, 7 or 8 on C638 as they are the drivers for the ignition coils and leave it set at dual coils.

You have 2 physical blocks that contain the coils but each one has 2 independent coils inside it so you actually have 4. As it's a wasted spark system, each coil will fire once per engine revolution even though each cylinder will only fire on every other spark. But, having just had a quick look at the manual, it seems that your options are only single coil, 2 coils or Tacho. Where is the brown wire connected? Is it on one of the coils or on the rpm output from the petrol ECU? You won't do any damage if you change the settings and see what it shows you. By fiddling around you should be able to get it to display the revs correctly.

That's where the number of coils bit comes into the setup. It's showing 4x actual speed.

Sorry Mark, but that just made me laugh out loud........

I always thought it was a technical term spelt phuqued, but yes. Trying to get as much work done as I can this morning so I can skive off a bit early and get stuck into pulling it off to see what horrors are lurking inside.

Definitely a lot of slop and the clank at the beginning of the video would suggest the impeller is floating around in there no longer attached to anything.....

Woohoo! AA have just called. The car will be back here at around 11pm tonight and the weather forecast for tomorrow is dry and sunny. That probably means it'll be bloody cold by the evening when I get in from work but at least it'll be dry. Looks like the Airtex is going on, at least for the time being.

Mention of water pumps has led me to resurrect this thread. Set off this morning for a run to Shropshire via Coventry. Got to Coventry, did what we needed to do and started out for Shropshire. Just get off the M6 onto the M54 and I felt and heard a clunk through the steering, initial thought was a tyre but then it beeped at me and a red picture of a battery appears on the dash followed by 3 more beeps and Alternator Fault. Went to pull over to the hard shoulder to realise I'd got no power steering either. Opened the bonnet expecting to see the shredded remains of the drive belt and it all looked fine except for coolant everywhere and a virtually empty reservoir. Couldn't see any split hoses so put water into the reservoir to see if I could see where it was coming out. Couldn't really see much other than what was already there so started the engine. Initially the belt was only turning a bit, then it started to turn properly and I got sprayed with coolant that was pouring out of the water pump and being flung off the back of the pulley. Decided that the hard shoulder of the M54 at 2 degrees in sleet wasn't an ideal place and, as the next exit was less than a mile up the road, I'd at least get it somewhere a bit safer so I could have a better look. Just off the motorway I saw a BP filling station so aimed for there but with 100m to go there was a loud clanking from under the bonnet followed by a loss of charge and power steering again.

Seems the water pump had seized causing the belt to slip over the pulleys so the alternator and PS pump weren't turning. After I stopped it had freed itself but the bearing obviously then broke up completely and threw the belt off. There is a good inch in and out movement on the pump shaft and about 20 degrees of side to side slop in it. There is obviously no bearing left at all. The AA supplied us with a hire car (they were very apologetic that they couldn't get me a Land Rover so I would have to put up with a brand new Zafira instead) so we could continue on to Shropshire and then back home while my car was put on a transporter with the promise that it will be home within 48 hours.

Now I've got a brand new Airtex water pump that I tacked onto my order for replacement badges and other odds when mine was being resprayed as the SE has a Britpart that the previous owner fitted and started leaking within 2,000 miles. Fortunately, or otherwise, it's been too cold for me to summon the enthusiasm to get out there and fit it so that can go on as soon as the car is back here. Or do I keep that one for the SE and get something else?

What concerns me most is the complete lack of warning. The pump was replaced when the engine was rebuilt so it's done around 40,000 miles and it was an OEM although I'm not sure what make (been through my past orders with Island and it didn't come from them so it was either LRDirect, Rimmers or Nene Overland (as they are local) and I don't seem able to check them). As I'd got a 350 mile round trip to do today I opened the bonnet yesterday to check fluids and top up the washer bottle. The coolant was sitting at it's usual level smack on the line so it isn't like it has been slowly leaking. Had it been leaking or making a noise I would have done something about it (or we'd have used Dina's Merc today) but the worrying thing is how it went with no warning at all. With the sort of journeys I do, something that isn't going to give me the slightest hint of impending failure isn't something I want. Just got to hope the impeller hasn't damaged the front cover or it's going to be a bit more than a couple of hours out there in the cold.

Dunno about Swindon but the weather forecast for here is for sleet and snow showers.........

I've got standard smooth discs and Apec pads on mine and they certainly work well. Gave them the ultimate test the other day when a National Express coach decided to pull into the outside lane in front of me when I was doing 75mph. Completely fooled the ABS system by locking all 4 wheels and leaving some pretty impressive looking black marks on the road. Wasn't it bloody big enough for you to see?

Morat wrote:

Not wishing to be a party pooper, but would your vehicle still have type approval/MOT/Insurance after you modified a rather fundamental system?

Probably not but would anyone notice? I doubt the average MoT tester would even know what should live inside the EAS box and people still manage to get through the test on coils.

The Classic got the 3.9 from 89 onwards but I didn't think the Disco came out any earlier than that. However, Wikipedia says that the Disco came out in 89 and got the 3.5 engine on carbs for the first year and kept the 3.5 engine with injection until getting the 3.9 in 1994. Presumably they had some 3.5 motors left over so bunged them in the Disco after they'd stopped putting them in the Classic.

But either way, the timing wants to be about 4 degrees give or take a degree......

Or just get the existing one fired up for long enough to save the settings from that and load them into the new one?